Preparations for our summer camp normally start months in advance beginning with registration, programming, enlisting the counselors and organizing the bussing from different locations both...Read more »

From March 13th - 16th, a group of 30 Israeli teenagers embarked on a Journey to engage with diversity and become closer together. The unique opportunity of this Journey rests in the fact that...Read more »

'Applying Virginia Satir's Model to creating mutual curiosity and developing partnership between Palestinian-Arab and Jewish citizens of Israel'
They are provisionally called Therapists for Peace,...Read more »

As in the past 24 years, we held our Summer Peace Camp in July for three weeks (1st to 22nd July). For Jews and Arabs to meet from an early age is absolutely essential if one is not to fall into the...Read more »

Activities & Programs

The Nursery School at OPEN HOUSE is not only a warm nest where each child is treated as an individual, it is also an important basis for the continuing programs of OPEN HOUSE which they attend later on. These Arab toddlers come from Christian and Muslim homes, and, as they grow, they become volunteers and … more »

In the past 3 years Open House has been doing major work empowering women as individuals and in the community. Open House, in co-operation with the Kolech forum of religious Jewish women and the Interfaith Encounter Association…

The Journey is meant to open young Arabs and Jews to the experience and narrative of The Other. As a rule, the young people are exposed only to the narratives and attitudes of their own community. It takes enormous courage, in the Israeli Palestinian context, to bear the pain of what we have done to each other throughout a prolonged conflict. It is natural to become defensive under such circumstances. Listening, acknowledgement, empathy, these are the qualities that we aim to seed in The Journey.

The greater Ramle environs have a very heterogeneous makeup in which different communities (religious, secular, Ethiopian, Russian, Muslim Arabs, Christian Arabs) live parallel lives but rarely meet and interact. The level of dialogue, if at all, is superficial and occasional. Open House sees itself as a neutral location where fruitful dialogue and shared community, based … more »

Throughout 2011, there were 9 sessions, held at Open House, designed for Arab women on the topic of the development of the sexuality of children. These topics are pretty much shunned in the Arab community and are a cause for embarrasement. The Muntada Foundation, based in Haifa, has made it its purpose to promote greater … more »

November 20 is the Day of the Child, marking the anniversary of the U.N. Declaration on the Rights of Children. On Friday, November 18, Open House young adults led sessions on children’s rights at the Terra Santa school in Ramle. Here are the words of Bissan Salman, 19, who led the sessions together with Muhammad Kabua, 18, and Vivian Rabia: “First we brainstormed … more »

Celebrating the Light on Human Right’s Day, 10th of Dec, was the initiative of artist Shulamit Ashkenazi. After participating in our Interfaith course for women, Shulamit became quite an activist at Open House.

The Olive Tree Project is a program we had been dreaming about the whole of last year. We wished to work with 2 schools–a Hebrew school and an Arab school which will create olive tree sculptures for each other.

NEVEI KODESH Synagogue members in Boulder Colorado, have taken initiative to help Open House by creating postcards from the art work of our Peace Camp and Nursery School. Members of Nevei Kodesh Congregation are holding a dialogue group with Christian and Muslim Palestinian Americans who together have taken on this project to raise funds for … more »

Dear Friends, I wish to share with you this open, trusting, and rare dialogue, a fruit of our work and training. On the 28th of February 2009, we convened at Open House, a group of young adult Arabs and Jews, with whom we have been working with for some time. Most of these young adults … more »

The Parents’ Network creates a nucleus of coexistence advocates within the local community by forging friendships between Jewish and Arab residents of Ramle. Fifty adults (sometimes joined by their 35 children) participate in weekend family outings to nature sites around the country, holiday celebrations, and regular meetings at OPEN HOUSE to hear guest speakers and … more »